The collector who is commissioning this piece has some very specific requirements; particularly that red should be the predominant color in the painting.

We passed several sketches back and forth to work out a general design, this being one of them.

When the basic composition was settled, I got the items I needed from my props collection (and of course the grocery store for the perishables), and put together the setup I'd be working from.

When I sent over the image of the setup, the collector made what turned out to be an excellent compositional suggestion; move the bread back and the apples to the fore.

In its original position, the bread served too much of a blocking purpose, preventing the eye from moving through the space; almost like a wall. I hadn't noticed this at first, but making the change made all the difference; now the eye can freely flow through the picture space, and there is a greater sense of depth. Furthermore, the apples in front increases the red, which is an important component for this painting.

So, with this final design, the collector is happy and gave me to the go-ahead to begin work on it.